As many of you know, i’ve been preparing for awhile now for the workshop that i facilitated last night. As of the last update, i was trying to narrow down the topic. Given that yesterday was A Day Without Latin@s (a day of action for immigrant rights) and i thought that i wasn’t going to get to participate in local actions, i decided to focus on racism in the environmental movement. Specifically, i planned to talk about the environmental movement’s recent history with immigration. I’ll talk more about this in a later post.
However, i prefer to go with the flow of things instead of living strictly by what i write down. All day i thought about how i wish i were able to travel the hour and a half to the large protest organized by migrant workers and latin@ communities. Then, as i was biking to where the workshop was being held, i passed a group of about 50 people (almost all Latinos, almost all wearing white). They were gathered downtown in solidarity with the larger actions an hour and a half away. I knew then that my plans were going to change.
You may say, “50 people, big deal!” In this small city, it is a big deal. The largest demo i’ve seen here consisted of about 30-50 people and that was back in 2002. And despite the fact that our city is about 40% people of color, i’ve NEVER seen a demo with a majority people of color. There are a number of reasons for this which i won’t get into right now, but all i knew right then was that there was no way i was going to spend the next four hours talking about solidarity and pass up a real opportunity to exemplify solidarity.
Let’s go back. A couple of weeks ago i received an email from someone saying that there was some local organizing efforts around a solidarity event with the immigrants rights marches in town. I pushed it aside because of my past experiences with the people whom sent me the email. *flashback* Actions organized by White people in this town have consistently been the following:
1) a small group of White people standing silently on a street corner downtown (i tend to be of the camp that we are silenced enough and don’t need to be silencing ourselves)
2) a small group of White people standing loudly on a street corner making promises that they don’t carry out. This was the case at the last demo i attended in this town. Myself and six others said to the organizers, “fuck you, you said we were going to be marching through the streets, so we are sticking to your promise.” A friend and i ended up in jail. I am tired of White people making promises of solidarity that they don’t intend to keep.
Since the persyn sending me the email was White and of the silent vigil camp, i decided to pay it no mind. I also found it a little ridiculous that an event was being organized through email. But apparently, some folks from the local Bascillica were doing some organizing of there own. So when i showed up to the workshop space i announced that i would rather show solidarity for immigrants rights than talk about immigrants rights. So i suggested that we spend the first two hours of the workshop going to the demonstration instead. There were 20 people there at the time. 15 voted to go, 5 voted indifference. Two people left and never showed up again (one of them i knew and we’ve disagreed on everything we’ve talked about - he’s an “anarcho-primitivist”, i HATE anarcho-primitivism). Before leaving, someone said they weren’t going to go because they felt it wouldn’t do any good and that it would be awkward rolling up with a group of White people. My response was that i wasn’t going to force anyone to do anything. We are all capable of making our own decisions, but for anyone who decides not to go, i ask that they think about this: “White people are always finding reasons not to support people of color. What are your reasons?” That persyn didn’t go, but they did participate later in some great discussion.
So i get on my bike and head back down to the demo. The crowd had swelled to about 150 people, about 20 of them (including the 15 with me) were White. There was a very large showing of mami’s mothers with their kids. And the only persyn that i recognized was one of the students from my class (he was embarrassed to see me there, but then bragged about it at school today:). I was both enlivened and greatly saddened to see a demonstration with a majority of latin@s. Saddened because not one of the “radical” folks in this town cared to show up. Saddened because not even the White persyn who initially emailed me showed up. In fact, outside of the people that came with me, there wasn’t one White persyn under the age of 50. And people wonder why i left the local anarchist collectives after i tried to talk about White Supremacy within the collectives and was threatened. Hmm. What can i say, some days White people really are great. But i’m generalizing again. And getting off topic.
For about an hour, in the hottest, sunniest day this southern city has seen this year, we marched around, listened to music, and listened to people speak (almost entirely in Spanish). My favorite signs were “Immigrants contribute $23 billion dollars to NC” and the one from the sole counter-demonstrator, “Americans support America.” Apparently that dumbass didn’t realize that all the immigrants there were from America: El Salvador, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua are some of the places folks that i talked to were from. Yup, all in America. Both Americas, actually.
The title of this post is from a line of one of the songs that was sung at the demo. It reminded me of the pictures from the civil rights movement in the sixties - where lines of Black people were carrying signs that read “I AM a man”. This will be another post in the near future.
On a sorta side note, i overheard one of the few White wimmin at the demo say, “you know they are calling this the next civil rights movement.” Well, hun, they also said that a few years ago regarding the same-sex marriage movement. But calling it the next civil rights movment doesn’t make it so. That requires persynal responsibility, but that’s coming later in the post. Besides, i hate to say this is the next civil rights movement. To me, that denies the uniqueness of the movement. Sure, they are very connected, but this is new. New tactics will need to be used. New models of leadership (which we are already seeing). New goals. Besides, I hope that this movement will not die with a piece of legislation. Because legislation has never given anyone power. That is something we have to take, something we have to create. That’s the movement i’m working to create. And i hope it doesn’t result in mutliple assassinations. I hope that White people don’t get bored again and move on to anti-war organizing. I hope for something greater than any civil rights movement we’ve ever seen. No disrespect to all the great work that was done, it brought us this far. Its time for us to go further. Now back on track.
So we go back to the workshop space and get ready for the dinner break. I sit with a group of the folks to discuss how folks felt, etc. The first and only thing that people cared to talk about were the form letters to the Senators. The letters were written by members of the Catholic Church. The folks in the workshop were White anarchists. Apparently the two are like oil and water. In the letter, there is a paragraph that goes something like:
“I have a job as a _____. I pay taxes. I own/rent a house. I own a car. I have a family that I love. And I am a believer in the Christian faith.”
Turns out that almost no one signed these letters because of that paragraph. Fucking ridiculous. Diversity of tactics only when convenient, huh? They went on and on about how they weren’t going to sign anything that said 1)they had a job, 2)they paid taxes and, most importantly, 3)they were Christian. A little lesson in solidarity for Whitey: the majority of catholics in the world are latin@. The majority of latin@s are catholic. If you are going to work in solidarity with latin@s, you will find yourself 1)inside a cathedral, 2)talking about God, and 3)signing a piece of paper that says you are Christian. I’m not Catholic. I’m not even christian. But i didn’t hesitate to sign that paper. You know why? Because the fucking point of the letter wasn’t to convert the world to Christianity, it was to tell Senators Dole and Burr that there are a lot of reasons not to vote for a seriously fucked up bill. If we are going to stop our solidarity when we find one small point of contention, we are never going to get anything done. I can tell that now. My response to this conversation (given the audience) was this: “i figure its not the first time that i lied to the government.” These are people who pride themselves on how anti-government they are. You would think that they would jump on the opportunity to lie to the government in the service of the greater good, but instead Whitey makes another excuse not to support people of color. See a pattern yet?
At this point its time for me to leave the discussion and start setting up the workshop. Because we spent the frist two hours at the demo, i had to make some last minute changes. Orginally, we were going to have an intense discussion about how White Supremacy plays out in radical environmental movements and how not confronting that White Supremacy and including an analysis of Whiteness into radical environmental organizing ultimately disables the effectiveness of the movement. We were going to spend some time talking about how to recognize White Supremacist patterns in our organizing as well. The last two hours were going to be spent looking at moving into action, how to hold ourselves, our co-organizers, and our organizations/collectives accountable.
But due to the fact that we now only had two hours, i decided to do an exercise i created awhile back called the Web of Justice (its based off the Web of Oppression exercise, if you are familiar, if not, i’ll post the outline sometime soon). Its a great visual exercise that gets people thinking about how different issues are interconnected and how when we don’t make those connections, we aren’t doing what needs to be done. It was really interesting to see people making connections between trans liberation, animal lib, housing rights, prisoners rights, immigrants rights, feminism, counter-globalization, appalachian struggles, indy media, and so forth. People really seemed to get a lot out of it and it generated a lot of really good conversation. In summary, people seemed to get the point.
From there we did some self-reflection writing, which some people shared with the group. Then read some of Catherine Jones’ What I Wish I Knew: My Own Goals for Anti-Racist Practice. Then we wrote at least ten persynal goals each for how to make the connections that we discussed in the earlier exercise and how to make our organizing efforts anti-oppressive. There was some really good stuff. And a few people seemed to have added “learn spanish” (to which someone responded, “its important to learn spanish, but i also encourage you to learn other languages like ASL.” So glad that was said!).
The same persyn who mentioned ASL, actually, talked about a specific goal in her community in WV. Last week, a group of White coal miners burned down a bar where immigrant coal miners hang out. There is also rumor that White coal miners have threatened to (or may have already) burn down the homes of the immigrant workers. Their reasoning for burning them down? “They don’t speak english and they’re taking our jobs.” They burned the bar because the owner refused to kick the immigrants out. Apparently burnings are still popular in WV. So anyway, the participant (one of the few people i knew before this workshop, since most of them seemed to have come from New Orleans), said her goal was to create a dialogue between laid-off White coal miners and immigrant coal miners to talk about how their struggles are connected, but they are being pitted against each other. A great (if not vital) goal! After the workshop, the two of us talked for awhile about how such a conversation may come about without risking the jobs and lives of the immigrant workers. The conversation sparked an idea for a series of posts on the interconnectedness of struggle, which i’ll be publishing over the next few weeks.
So folks shared their many goals and then we moved into accountability. People seemed to be at a loss on this one. Some folks had some good ideas: find friends who will share the goal with you, keep the goals listed in a visible place, that’s all i can remember right now. Which got me to thinking, young White people (especially middle-class White people) aren’t really held accountable. So its no wonder that the topic of accountability would be so difficult. In retrospect, i would have added a question to the workshop: to whom are you accountable?
The attitude of many young White “radicals” seems to be simple: i’m accountable only to myself. This especially seems true in many of the anarchist communities of which i’ve been a part. This attitude is not only self-centered, it is destructive and greatly privileged. We aren’t islands. No on can survive on their own. If a baby is dropped in a forest alone, chances are that baby dies within a few days. I’d agree that we must hold ourselves accountable, but if we are merely holding ourselves accountable to ourselves, then we can pretty much do whatever we want and feel justified. However, if we recognize that we are social creatures and emotional creatures and that we are responsible for and accountable to all those around us, then we find that there are certain behaviors that are destructive to our community (and, in turn, self-destructive).
Overall, i’d say the workshop went really well. Despite some rocky starts, folks really dove into it. Of the twenty particants, over half gave me their email addresses so that i could send them more info (and the outline for the first half of the workshop). One participants, who i would guess to be about 18, pulled me aside as i was leaving to thank me and say that he had thought about a lot of things that he had never thought about before. He said he had never been to an anti-oppression workshop but that he was excited to attend more in the future. That’s why i haven’t given up on White people yet. We may say and do some fucked up things, but some of us honestly care about making a difference. Its great to find those others throughout life. And for that, i’m thankful.
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vegankid–
i seriously have an internet crush on you.
vegan, this is an amazing write up. i’m SO glad you did it the way you did, kinda like an in your face challenge. put up or shut up. excellent. you know, it’s funny, when i was at an activist gathering one year, it was a purely dialogue meeting between people of color, but it was held on the same day as a huge anti-war protest in ann arbor. actually, the protest was held just outside our rooms window. and it was so funny and kinda touching to see how during breaks, everybody in the room would sort of get up and “wander” over to the window and sort of gaze longingly out at the protest. there is something in a person who is *meant* to be out on the streets that clearly makes it very hard for them to sit around and do “nothing” rather than be physically up and moving and singing and participating–and it sounds like you clearly have that something…i’m one who would be very interested in seeing the web of justice/oppression thing…
nubian - i’m blushing:)
bfp - i have a lot of patience (you have to when you spend most of your time working with kids and White people). But i have no patience or sympathy for excuses or whining. I can’t stand either one. And i let folks know that.
And while i wouldn’t consider a group of White people talking about Whiteness to be doing nothing, i defintely felt that there was an opportunity to do more than just talk, so i took it. As dead prez says, “you can talk, talk, talk, but it don’t mean shit.”
I’ll post the outline for the Web of Justice exercise. I have a copy on a disc somewhere, but i may have to type it out again.
your write up is very inspiring. I wish I could have been there. I love your idea about the web of justice. “young White people (especially middle-class White people) aren’t really held accountable.”. I think this is very concise and a wonderful answer to identity politics and privilege. probably also true for more then just white kids but white kids especially for sure.
I love your brain and I’m very glade I know you.
tell those asheville kids action is not equal to party.
love
trombone
trombone!!! you’re a dwarf hampster that lives in my bedroom and yet you never come to my blog! I’m so glad you and veganfriend finally stopped by (or finally commented, whatever the case). I promise that i will clean your mansion tomorrow:)
I’d be interested in seeing a diagram of the Web of Justice and how to do it, too.
Just a thought on the WV stuff — it sounds a lot like the John Sayles movie Matewan. Depressing that events are still repreating themselves 80 years later, but maybe talking about the history of the event could be useful to contextualise the situation for the anti-immigration workers.
(Um, granted, I’m in Australia and I have no idea about the honesty of that movie, or whether it’s still relevant on the ground.)
Forgive my asking, Vegankid - but what’s your background, culturally/religiously?
I ask because y’know, I would have signed the damned letter in that situation, because like you I don’t mind lying to the government and I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I’m pretty relaxed about such things. But there have been times in my life when I wouldn’t have signed it, because I would have needed my so-called allies to acknowledge that in a hugely Christian-dominated society, it can be legitimate not to be a Christian. And while you may not see being Jewish as something that any reasonable white person gives a shit about (for all I know you’re Jewish too!), not all Jews agree, and I wouldn’t dream of telling any Jew that they’re lousy allies because they refuse to sign a piece of paper in which they refuse their own cultural identity. Coming not only from Jews, but also from all sorts of non-Christians, including ex-Christians who are recovering from a Christian upbringing, not signing a piece of paper is very understandable.
I just get antsy when “radicals” say, in effect, “If you think something is important to you and I disagree, that’s proof you’re a poser.” And, with all due respect - and I respect you a lot - that’s what your “Whitey makes another excuse not to support people of color” argument sounds like to me.
amp - thank you so much for bringing this up. I was raised agnostic (in a dominantly-Christian town which was very anti-semitic). You are absolutely right about Christians refusing the cultural identity of Jews (and Muslims, Romas, etc, etc) and about the importance of supporting folks recovering from a Christian upbringing. Had any of the folks that i was working with brought this up as a point of contention, i would have agreed and the discussion would have been much different. However, their point was basically that it would somehow hurt their radical anarchist image to sign a piece of paper that said they believed in God or (worse) that they were Christians.
I certainly see being Jewish as something that reasonable White people give a shit about and i’m sorry that i haven’t made myself very clear on this. I can certainly see how my words could be misunderstood (the joys of internet communication, eh?). I also hate when “radicals” say that there are “more” radical positions and “less” radical positions. I’ve stated that several times before. Which is why i took issue with the folks not signing; i felt as though they weren’t signing because they felt it was the less-radical thing to do and that the most radical thing to do was to shun Christians and Christianity regardless of its consequences. I would agree that there needs to be room to discuss this topic within the pro-immigrant rights movement, but i can almost guarantee you that these kids cared more about complaining (and not taking action) than to actually start up a conversation about the need to create a culturally/religiously diverse movement. I felt that a lot of the attitude of this particular group was one of cultural imperialism akin to the Christian imperialism that they were shuning (basically, everyone should be relgion-free).
Again, thank you SO much for bringing this up. It is a discussion that we need to have.
How dare you cut off what might have been a perfectly good argument by being so reasonable and agreeable? Damn you, Vegankid!
white activist/anarchist communities have a lot to learn about immigrant and refugee rights. i’m glad that you’re stepping up the challenge of discussion with other white folks, it’s a daunting task.
i understand the need to point out the huge lack of solidarity between white folks and people of color at the demonstration, in asheville and in general (i’ve been directly affected by such), but
imagine for a second what it must have been like for the latin@s that organized and participated in the event. the massive empowerment and the creation of solidarity within a group of people of color that are largely scattered and isolated in this region must have been amazing. i know from my experiences with APOC and predominatly people-of-color spaces that there is an energy and a unity not found elsewhere, certainly in white-dominated spaces.
if white folks had actually organized an event, they wouldn’t have done it with people of color. it would have been a white event in support of immigrant rights, meaning that practically every aspect would have been aimed at and catering to white activists - from the speakers, to the level of risk of the event, to the method of organizing.
if the white anarchists in this town had shown up to either event, they would have either left early (because it wasn’t ‘radical’ enough for them) or put people of color and other at-risk people in danger by escalating the event with tactics like property destruction or traffic blocking, again because they would be bored and it wouldn’t be ‘radical’ enough for them.
i’ve seen all these things happen at immigrant-rights and other POC-support events way too many times.
while i think that white folks should be out showing their support and critically reviewing (with input from POC!) their role as allies, as a latina and first-generation citizen, i understand that white solidarity shouldn’t be immigrant rights’ main goal - immigrants and refugees should.
a side note:
as a person of color, i can also appreciate the incredible need for a strong cultural identity. but for relatively privileged people, there aren’t many times when someone is forced to choose between their own cultural identity and supporting less privileged people. in other words, i don’t think that signing a letter written by the catholic church is 1) the only form letter that could have been signed, as i know of several from immigrant rights and farmworker union groups that were secular (or someone could start their own form letter or persynal letter) or 2) the only way someone could show their solidarity.
furthermore, while i disagree that working with latin@ folks largely places people into a christian or catholic context (i.e. “you’ll find yourself in a church, talking about God…”), in general refusing to support or work with any oppressed peoples because they also possess an oppressor identity means that no social justice work can ever be done, since everyone is a combination of multiple identities - privileged and non-privileged. i think this is one of the most confusing and difficult aspects of any solidarity work - meeting people where they are at and balancing between the individual and the community.
one last note:
i’m not sure why the spanish-language slang ‘mami’ was thrown into your post, but there’s no need for its use and i find it tokenizing.
first, ‘mami’ is either used by children to refer to their own moms (the english equivalent being something like ‘mommy’) or as a slang word meaning an attractive womyn (such as a ‘hottie’). try replacing either of those english words in that sentence.
second, ‘mami’ isn’t a word that carries a special cultural relevance or defies translation, like ‘campesino’ or ‘autogestion’, words like those are typically used in english-language writing because of their significance.
in other words, writing ‘mothers’ instead would have been sufficent.
amp - just trying to piss you off:) i love it when you get angry.
seve - always a guiding voice of reason. glad to see you commenting again. haven’t seen you around since the letter to the agr (which was never printed or mentioned again, but that’s expected).
i wasn’t trying to say that it was all bad that it was a majority of Latin@s at the demo. That’s why i said that i was enlivened. I agree with you 100%. I would like to expand on your point about White anarchists (in particular, the scene here in aville), but you made it pretty clear and succinct. That’s what i find to be so sad. But you know this already. Hell, its a large part of why i’m leaving. And i don’t think its up to the immigrants’ rights movement to get White solidarity involvement. I think that’s up White folks. So again, i agree 100%.
Explain to me again, seve, why you haven’t published a book? I know i’m not the only one who thinks you should (don’t make me bring Goddard into this, you know i hate to do that:)
Regarding your last point, you’re right. I’ve crossed out the word (so as not to pretend that i never wrote it) and wrote mothers instead. Thanks for calling me out on that.
az - i almost forgot! how could i? ironically enough, i actually suggested Matewan. No kidding! Your view from Australia seems pretty clear. Shit is definitely repeating itself today. And i will get a copy of the Web of Justice exercise up on this site sometime this week.
Immigrants versus illegal immigrant,…BIIGGGG difference, and it both insults, and offends me, one who was a legal immigrant to see all this alleged solidarity with the many oppressed….who’s oppressed, the people coming over from Mexico(?); who’s oppressing them, their own government, Mexico, or this nation, and if they are so oppressed here why do they come here-to be oppressed. Gimme a f***’n break. All this pandering to their needs, pain and suffering, and allegedly doing only work Americans won’t do-you mean like the 75% of construction workers that are building houses in Calif.; I guess construction work is work Americans no logner want to do-or is it 75% illegals because they’ll work for so little….just picking fruits and vegetables my donkey. I hope all of you socially sensitives lose your jobs/incomes to someone who’ll do it for next to nothing.
walter et al - please read what i write before getting all worked up. Otherwise, i’m likely to just delete future comments as i see no need to continually repeat myself. If you had read what i’ve written, you’d know that
1) i’ve criticized liberals for making the argument that immigrants are doing the work that US citizens will not. FYI, my dad works in construction and i’ve worked in construction. So obviously we are willing to do the work. In fact, i said that if liberals continue to base their arguments on this notion, then they will lose the debate (but what do they care, they aren’t the ones who will be deported). What i’ve said is that US citizens aren’t willing to do the work at the same pay and with the same lack of job security, so if we are to work for justice then we have to take a more wholistic approach to it and look at global economic systems that continue to create a downwardly spiraling work system. Doing so will benefit migrant workers and workers that are US citizens.
2) I have also been a vocal advocate of looking at why people choose to move thousands of miles away from their families in order to be treated like shit at shitty jobs for shitty wages. However, i think that you are letting several people off the hook by simply saying that it is the fault of the Mexican government. The Mexican government, which is largely controlled by US and French corporate interests (the president is a former executive at Coca-Cola), has been greatly pressured by the US government and corporate interests to bankrupt workers rights and indigenous rights in their own country. US-drafted plans like NAFTA, CAFTA, and the FTAA are trying to turn Mexico into one big exploitable resource pool. Yes, pressure must be put on the Mexican government to stop this trend, but having been to Mexico, i can tell you that there is no shortage of people who are doing just that. What we here in the US need to do is to pressure our government to stop going forward with such plans as CAFTA, the FTAA, Plan Puebla-Panama, AFTA, etc. They are bad for workers everywhere.
I would also disagree that there is a BIIGGG difference between legal and illegal immigrants. What makes an immigrant illegal? Why are such people forced to migrate illegally? Why would they put themselves at such risk if it were so easy for everyone to migrate here legally? Who has easy access to the US and who is often denied? Besides, HR 4437 doesn’t necessarily target just illegal immigrants. What it does is to create a larger number of illegal immigrants (by making it harder to legally immigrate here) and to more severely punish those that choose to migrate here.
ps. i don’t need to lose my job to understand that the greed of corporations has pitted worker against worker. But i don’t see the need to blame immigrants when it is corporations that are so greedy. I just don’t see how misplacing my anger is going to help anybody. Hell, those that are making money off of immigrants want non-immigrant workers to attack immigrants. Cuz by doing so, they get to continue making more and more money and never have to look like the bad guys that they are.
I’m curious why you aren’t focusing your anger on repealling NAFTA, walter. After all, NAFTA is what caused the worth of the Mexican peso to drop so severely, causing many mexican workers to find jobs elsewhere. And it is NAFTA that doesn’t allow mexican workers the right to organize themselves and earn a living wage. I can pretty much guarantee you that if you want to see fewer immigrants, then you should start working for economic justice here and globally. When people find justice in their own communities, they’ll have no need to travel where they are hated. In the meantime, try to have actual conversations with immigrant workers. You may come to realize that your struggles are one in the same. When you do that, you can work together instead of against each other. And we all know that we accomplism more when we work together.